Scrub Sheoak

Allocasuarina distyla

"Allocasuarina distyla", commonly known as scrub she-oak, is a shrub or small tree of the She-oak family Casuarinaceae endemic to New South Wales.
Allocasuarina distyla  Allocasuarina distyla,Australia,Fall,Geotagged,Scrub Sheoak

Appearance

This dioecious shrub or small tree will typically grow to a height of 4 metres tall, or 7 metres in richer soils, and is found in coastal areas of New south Wales and southern Queensland.

This plant is extremely resilient as it has the ability to grow in poor conditions such as draught. Its erect branchlets are up to 35 centimetres long. The ridges are angular to rounded and occasionally pubescent. There are 6–8 teeth. The spikes of male flowers are 1–5 centimetres long with roughly 5 whorls of flowers per centimetre.

The cones are up to 12 millimetres long and often have a sterile apex. The samara is a very dark brown. This plant is dioecious, meaning that the male and female reproductive organs develop on different trees. The most common time this plant will flower is between the months of July through September, however, this may vary depending on rainfall. In Greek, 'allos' translates to 'other' and 'Casuarina' implies a comparison to 'foliage'. 'Di' translates to 'two' whereas 'stylos' translates to 'column'. These translations relate to the characteristics of this plant.

References:

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Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassEudicots
OrderFagales
FamilyCasuarinaceae
GenusAllocasuarina
SpeciesA. distyla
Photographed in
Australia